Nick Vujicic who is a motivational speaker, was born with an unusual disorder, lack of all four limbs. One of his greatest quotations is: “For every disability you have, you are blessed with more than enough abilities to overcome your challenges.” “Mike” Michael Trimble who is 27 years old and a resident of Pittsburgh is the best example of this quote as he was born without arms but he rejected to give way to his disability. Michael planned to buy a bicycle for himself as no hurdle could stop him after graduating from Duquesne University in political science.
Mike had this birth defect as he was born in the former USSR ((Ukraine), in the Chernobyl area where the nuclear accident took place in 1986. Michael was adopted by family from Pittsburgh after spending nine years of his life in a local orphanage. When he rode the bicycle for the first time, it was in boarding school, where his gym teacher substituted the bike’s handlebars with a metal pipe reaching out to one of Mike’s stumps.
Michael purchased a single-speed bicycle last year and tried to find someone who could customize it according to his specification but failed miserably. He was either regarded as a liability or rejected on the basis that it was not possible to customize the bicycle as per his specification until one of his friends, Tim Rhodes, came across Michael Brown from Maestro Frameworks. Mr. Brown said: “It never even crossed my mind that it could not be done, especially after I talked to Mike, he was so gung-ho about riding a bike again.”
The bike was retrofitted by Michael Brown to look a lot like the one that was modified by Mike’s gym teacher several years ago. Mr. Brown stated that he “spent a lot time sitting on the bicycle, visualizing how the handle will work, how upright it has to be, how much weight I need to put on the front wheel to stabilize it.” It took him nearly two months to build a bike as per Mike’s demand. The bike has a U-shaped single-sided bar in place of original handlebars. Mike took barely 30 minutes to become familiar with it and then rode the bicycle without any assistance.
Mr. Brown had the exact point-of-view as Nik Vujicic after designing the bike for Mike, he said: “My belief is that anyone can ride a bicycle and anything can be modified for people to meet their needs”. Now thats an inspirational Story, Isnt it?
